1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a display device, and more specifically, to a display device divided into a panel part and a body part such that the panel part has an ultra thin thickness.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the information-oriented society evolves, various demands for display devices are ever increasing. In accordance with this, flat panel display devices employing a variety of display panels are being developed and released, such as OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode), LCD (Liquid-Crystal Display), PDP (Plasma Display Panel), ELD (Electro Luminescent Display), VFD (Vacuum Fluorescent Display), etc.
In addition, recently, display panels and display devices including such display panels are becoming thinner and lighter due to the advancement of the display panel manufacturing process. As the display devices become thinner and lighter, such devices have a great advantage in terms of design as well as technology.
In order to further improve the design quality, efforts have been made to reduce the width of the bezel and to reduce the thickness of display devices.
FIG. 1 is a view of the back side of a typical display module. FIG. 2 is a view of a side of a typical display module.
The display module includes a display panel 10 for displaying an image, and a driving circuit unit 20 for driving the display panel 10.
The driving circuit unit 20 is connected to the display panel 10 via a flexible connection circuit unit 25.
The connection circuit unit 25 may include a flexible printed circuit, a chip on film (COF), or a tape carrier package (TCP).
As shown in FIG. 1, a display module is typically implemented with the driving circuit unit 20 folded back over the back side of the display panel 10.
FIG. 2 shows such a display module when viewed from a side.
The overall thickness of the display module including the driving circuit unit 20 is determined based on the thickness of the display panel itself plus the thickness of the driving circuit unit 20 folded back over the back side of the display panel 10.
FIG. 3 is a view showing the back side of a typical display device. FIG. 4 is a view showing a side of a typical display device.
The display device includes a display panel, as well as a power board 30 for supplying system power for the display device, and a system board 40 for managing a video signal.
A television device capable of receiving broadcast signals and outputting sound signals is implemented by adding capabilities of receiving broadcast signals and outputting sound signals to the system board 40. Such a television device is also a kind of display device and, in the following description, the term display device include a television device.
The overall thickness of a display device is determined based on the arrangement of the driving circuit unit 20, the power board 30 and the system board 40 of the display module, and they are typically disposed in the lower portion of the back side of the display panel 10.
Accordingly, there is a deviation in the thickness of the display device. In order to realize a generally uniformly thin thickness, the driving circuit unit 20, the power board 30, and the system board 40 have to be disposed so that they all have a uniformly thin thickness.
However, since the system board 40 includes various input/output terminals disposed thereon, it has a limitation in reducing its thickness. In addition, the power board 30 includes elements such as a transformer, a rectifier, etc., and thus it also has a limitation in reducing its thickness.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a display panel and a driving circuit.
The driving circuit includes a data driver D_D, a gate driver G_D, and a timing controller T_C.
The display panel 10 includes a plurality of data lines DL, a plurality of gate sense lines GL1, and a plurality of gate lines GL2.
The data lines DL are connected to the data driver D_D, and the sense lines GL1 and the gate lines GL2 are connected to the gate driver G_D.
The timing controller T_C controls the driving timings of the data driver D_D and the gate driver G_D.
The data driver D_D and the gate driver G_D of the driving circuit may be connected to the display panel 10 by tape automated bonding (TAB) or chip on glass (COG) technology on a bonding pad of the display panel 10, or may be formed on the display panel 10 in the form of a GIP (Gate In Panel).
Accordingly, the data driver D_D and the gate driver G_D may not significantly affect the overall thickness of the display device.
However, the timing controller T_C is typically implemented on a separate board, and thus the timing controller T_C is a factor for determining the overall thickness of the display module.
In addition, in a display device or a television device, the overall thickness of the device is determined based on the arrangement and the form of the power board and the system board in addition to the timing controller. Since the thickness of the portion where the power board and the system board are disposed is larger than the other portion, it is difficult to realize a uniform thickness of the device.